other element in the population, as the presence with them of the two illegible black cylinders would suggest. The burials in pottery cists, not hitherto mentioned, may now be taken. These cists were found at Ballas both in "stairway" tombs and in open Neolithic graves. At El Kab they have been already mentioned as occurring in mastaba wells. The cists are short coffins, about 3 feet in length, made of a coarse and porous red ware, and are generally without lids. In one instance (174) the cist was found between walls and beneath a roof of sandstone blocks. The skeleton, which was young, as the epiphyses were not united, lay on its left side, facing east, the head north. A small shell, with chips of malachite, was before the face. In another, the cist lay at the bottom of a square well, the body again on its left side, with the head to the north, the knees brought up before the face; the left elbow was by the side of the left hand before the face, while the right arm lay over the head. There was a little decayed linen cloth in the cist, and, near the hips, a shell. In tomb No. 249 a _majūr_ and two cists lay upon the sloping bottom of a long (3·70 m.) well; the _majūr_ was at the southern end, which was lower by 60 cm. than the northern. In both cists the body lay as in the two last-mentioned graves; one contained a sharp-edged shallow bowl of red ware. Another cist (316) lay at the bottom of a shallow well near the large group of mastabas (1·50 m. by 1·10 m. by 1·60 deep). The sides of the cist were broken down, and many of the bones were disturbed, but a part of the spinal column and the legs sufficed to show that the body had lain with the head north, but on its right side. No. 312 has been already mentioned among the mastabas. The cist lay in a small chamber, the body on its left side, with head to the north. CHAPTER II. DATE OF THE "NEW RACE" REMAINS.